Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Indianapolis IN -- BY JAMES CHRISTIE The Globe and Mail INDIANAPOLIS The girl from Beauce isn't much concerned with the social graces when she walks out on the judo mat.

Nathalie Gosselin won one of two Canadian bronze medals in the Pan American Games judo competition last night and along the way broke one opponent's foot and ripped the T-shirt off another.

Gosselin, 21, of Ste-Marie Beauce, Que., captured the bronze medal in the 56-kilogram class, while Kathy Hubble, 18, of Delta, B.C., took the bronze in the 52-kg division.

Gosselin won two of her three matches last night, the loss coming in the semi-final against Cecilia Alacan of Cuba. Her bronze-medal win came against Brazil's Kellyn Taranto, who held up the match while she replaced her torn garment.

'''ve been third in the Commonwealth Games, third in the U.S. Open and now third here," she said, eyeing the bronze medal. '' guess it's my color, kind of dirty gold.

'' wanted to win the gold either here or make the top three in the world championships to qualify for the Olympic team," she said. '' thought I would win against the Cuban, but she was strong. I thought I was better, but the judges didn't."

Hubble, a tiny, energetic judoka, won her bronze-medal match after only 52 seconds, tying up Sonia Valenzuela of Chile on the mat until she couldn't wriggle free. She won by Ippon.

'' was so disappointed to be going for bronze, I went out in the last match ready to kill," Hubble said. "My first match was against the Pan American champion (Solange Vincki of Brazil) and I didn't sleep for a week since I heard the draw. I went out 300 per cent in the first match, and I wasn't even looking for who was next."

She went on to beat Nancy Gonzalez Vega of Argentina before losing her semi-final to Lisa Boscarino of Puerto Rico.

On the men's side, Hartley Jones of Vancouver won two 71-kg matches before losing to Luiz Onmura of Brazil. He then was disqualified in his bronze match against Ignacio Sayu of Cuba.

Earlier, Craig Weldon of Pickering, Ont., lost to Venezuelan Luis Sequera in the 65-kg class.

On Monday night, Canada struck gold on the mat, on a win by Sandra Greaves of Thunder Bay, Ont., in the women's 66-kg division.